The versatility of fungal pathogenicity mechanisms and their development of resistance to antifungal drugs indicate the importance of understanding the nature of host-pathogen interactions. Researchers have developed invertebrate model hosts in order to facilitate the study of evolutionarily preserved elements of fungal virulence and host immunity [10]. These invertebrate systems such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Dictyostelium discoideum and Galleria mellonella offer a number of advantages over mammalian vertebrate models, predominantly

because they allow the study of strains without the ethical considerations associated with mammalian NVP-BSK805 order studies [11–13]. Importantly, Candida pathogenicity can be evaluated using the greater wax moth G. mellonella as an infection model. This model has yielded results that are comparable to those obtained using mammalian models and there is remarkable commonality between virulence factors required for disease in mice and for killing of G. mellonella [14–17]. The pathogenesis of Candida spp. depends upon the coordinated expression Selleckchem Erismodegib of multiple genes in a manner that facilitates proliferation, invasion and tissue

damage in a host. Since each invaded tissue is a unique ecological niche that changes over the course of the disease process, the expression of genes by Candida can vary according the CP-690550 datasheet infected site [18]. Costa et al. [19] demonstrated that blood Candida isolates were more proteolytic than oral cavity isolates while oral cavity isolates produced more phospholipase than blood isolates. On the other hand, Hasan et al. [20] using colorimetric assays verified that C. albicans strains isolated both from blood and oral mucosa produced the same quantity of biofilm. However, there are no studies to interrogate biofilm production on medical biomaterials

and pathogenicity of isolates from localized Reverse transcriptase and systemic candidiasis using an invertebrate model. The objective of this study was to compare biofilm production of oral and systemic Candida isolates using an in vitro biofilm model on silicone (a material that is used in a number of implantable devices and catheters) and acrylic resin (a material that is used in preparation of dental prostheses). We were also interested in determining the pathogenicity of the strains in the Galleria mellonella infection model, considering they were isolated from different host environments, either blood or oral collection sites. Methods Candida isolates A total of 33 clinical Candida strains recovered from oral and systemic candidiasis of different patients were used in this study. The oral Candida strains were isolated from the saliva or oropharyngeal candidiasis of 17 HIV-positive patients (65% men, 35% women) at the Emílio Ribas Institute of Infectious Diseases (São Paulo, SP, Brazil).